User Spotlight: Rehabbing Athletes

Corporate world to entrepreneur to rehabbing athletes. After spending her career in clinical oncology with a major pharma company and as the Chief Science Officer for a major diagnostic firm, Alane Koki retired four years ago and began to concentrate on her independent interests: forming her own company, BioFitRx, and becoming a fitness trainer specializing in pre/rehabilitation and functional training.

During the process of focusing her considerable skills & expertise on fitness training in general and athletic rehab in particular, Alane has become quite an advocate for the role the Helix Lateral Trainer can play as an integral part of any well rounded fitness program. Here are some of her comments when we had a chance to catch up with her for a brief interview.

Helix: How did you discover the Helix?

Koki:In the summer of 2013 I attended the IDEA World Convention. My mission was to identiy and evaluate exercise equipment to recommend to the gym I train out of, AmeriFit in Pittsburgh PA.. It’s a pretty special gym – its full repertoire of equipment enables trainers to do everything from pre/rehabilitation to sport specific conditioning for both athletes and mature adults.

Anyway, I was looking for the next generation of equipment, and immediately became interested in the Helix trainer because it was the first piece of equipment I’d seen that trains on the lateral plane.

I was absolutely sold on it – I wanted to get it into the gym right away, and when I came back from IDEA I told the owner that “we need these machines!” They already had 60 pieces of equipment, and actually had to remove some of them to make room for the Helix.

Helix: How…and why…are you using the Helix?

Koki:I’m a trainer and I’ve integrated the Helix into workouts with my clients. I do sport specific training with athletes from multiple sports, and I’ve found that the Helix effectively develops the strength and endurance of their stabilizing muscles.

In addition, it reinforces the “athletic position”, and teaches them to push through their hips instead of their quads. For all athletes, regardless of their sport, hip power is key. The Helix is perfect for this!

Also, many of my clients have injuries of the spine, knees, and hips, and the Helix has enabled me to teach clients to be more hip-centric vs quad-centric. For example, knee issues often stem from the hip, and other equipment – ellipticals, arc trainers, etc. – simply can’t teach spinal/pelvic control or positioning the way the Helix does.

Helix: Any other experiences with the Helix?

Koki:I personally had a bilateral hip replacement last year and the Helix has played an integral part in my own rehabilitation. As it would happen, the owner of my gym also had a hip replacement, and without the Helix neither of us would be as far along as we are.

I use the Helix extensively with my clients, and I’m continuing to find new ways to use it – it’s unique and effective, and will continue to be an integral part of my client training & rehab.